Ultrasound imaging systems are an important tool for diagnosis and therapy in a wide range of medical applications. Conventionally, ultrasound systems were large, expensive units used only in radiology departments by highly trained specialists. To improve portability and usability and enable ultrasound to be used at the point-of-care and by more users, various attempts have been made to reduce the size and cost of these systems and avoid the ergonomically troublesome cables that are typically used to attach handheld transducers to processing hardware.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,780,154 discloses a handheld medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging system that wirelessly communicates ultrasound data to a multi-use display device such as a commercially available PDA or tablet computer.
In addition to size and cost, wireless ultrasound systems may also face challenges related to bandwidth and power. A high bandwidth is desirable in order to support high quality images and high frame rates. However, high bandwidth wireless connections typically have high power consumption, which can quickly drain the battery of a wireless imaging device.
Some applications, like emergency medicine, may be time-critical. In such applications, users may need to begin imaging without delay. Some ultrasound systems can take a long time, on the order of 30-45 seconds, to boot up. It may not be practical for a battery-powered device to remain on when not in use. Wireless communication links generally require some sort of initialization procedure in order to establish communication. This pairing process can take a long time and be prone to errors, further delaying the start of imaging.
There remains a need for wireless ultrasound imaging systems that enable users of multi-use display devices to connect to ultrasound imaging devices quickly, easily, and securely. There is a particular need for such systems that provide multiple ultrasound imaging devices and allow users to rapidly select and commence imaging using a selected one of the ultrasound imaging devices.